CMR service is one of the most rapidly growing telecommunication services currently offered. (See, for example, "Surging, Price-Insensitive Demand Over Next Two Years and Strong Five-Year Picture Forecast for Cellular Industry Association, Which Sees Capacity Concerns Validated," TELECOMMUNICATIONS REPORTS, Aug. 15, 1988 (pp. 22, 23).) The technology underlying CMR service is exhaustively documented and well within the understanding of those possessed of ordinary skill in the art of CMR communications. Accordingly, a rigorous description of CMR technology will not be undertaken here, and the reader will be referred to the following representative publications, the contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference:
Bernard, Joseph. 1987. The Cellular Connection. Mendocino, Calif.: Quantum Publishing. PA1 Gibson, Stephen W. 1987. Cellular Mobile Radiotelephones. Edgelwood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall. PA1 (a) accept information identifying the CMR customer; PA1 (b) obtain a credit check of the CMR customer; PA1 (c) assign a telephone number to the CMR customer; and PA1 (d) insert and activate the telephone number in a cellular switch.
The projected growth of the CMR industry is rivaled only by the degree of competition engendered among those who provide CMR equipment or CMR service to the burgeoning customer population. As a result, the prudent provider of CMR equipment or service continually searches for ways to achieve a competitive advantage in the market place by identifying approaches that will allow him to enhance the quality of equipment or service he might make available to prospective customers. This invention is directed to a specific aspect of the provision of CMR service that has heretofore represented something of an obstacle rather than an attraction in the marketing of CMR service: the cumbersome and time-consuming process that must be endured in order for a CMR customer, who has decided to subscribe to CMR service, to be provided with that service.
Conventionally, once a CMR customer has purchased his equipment and desires to be activated on the cellular system of his choice, the following procedure is encountered. The customer is initially required to complete a paper form with information that includes his name, address, nearest relative, and so forth. The selling agent might then transmit this information, via, for example, facsimile, to a customer service representative ("CSR"). The CSR then attempts to obtain a credit report relating to the customer. Here a significant delay may be encountered because of the CSR's backlog of active credit-report requests or because of the backlog that may exist at the credit reporting service It is not uncommon for the delay at this juncture to approach one to two hours.
After the credit report has been received, the CSR then conveys to the agent, via telephone or facsimile, the results of the credit report and, based on the credit report, the amount of the deposit required from that customer. (Different deposit requirements will be exacted on different customers, depending largely on the customers' credit ratings.) The agent must then convey to the CSR the customer's agreement to pay the required deposit amount.
At this point, the CSR would access a centralized processor in order to "activate" the customer in a cellular switch and to generate a billing record. The centralized processor would need be connected to all relevant cellular switches and to a billing processor. As it may well be apprehended, the accumulated time required to achieve customer activation can approach, if not exceed, three hours.
The subject invention, however, is directed to a system for performing the same, and additional, functions in approximately 15 minutes--and does so with significant conservation of both the agents' and the CSRs' labor. As a matter of fact, the involvement of the CSR can be nearly eliminated, and the CSR would be called on to intervene in only the unusual, rather than the routine, customer activation.